Malawi 2017 :: A two week tour

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Hover over images to see captions (most, but not all, have descriptions).

Soundtrack

Recordings from the road. Singing is a big part of Malawian culture.

Nkhotakota

Traffic was particularly bad that day.

Scenes on the restaurant table were all common sights while visiting Malawi. Especially in rural areas.

Grilled Chambo. This fish is common in the lake, and is a common restaurant dish. That said, overfishing is a problem in the lake. It is not uncommon for misquito netting to be used as fishing nets, which traps the small fish, as well as the fully-grown ones.

Nkhata Bay

Bawo lessons. Bawo is extremely common in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a complicated version of Mancala, and there are many variations.

Our observation was that women did as much or more of the hard labor/work as the men, but didn't receive the credit.

Maize for sale. This corn is ground into flower, and boiled to make Nsima, a starchy staple with almost every meal. It is similar in consistency and flavor to unseasoned polenta.

"Take our picture!" These kids asked to have their photo taken, and then proceeded to "dab" for the camera.

Wooden dugout canoes are a common sight on Lake Malawi.

Mzuzu

Kwithu Women's Group & Kwithu Kitchens

Anna, giving us a tour of the first of the Kwithu Kitchens tomato greenhouses.

Preschool children at Kwithu.

Once these tomatoes are optimally ripe, they will be canned, and sold to restaurants as pure, and in the grocery store ShopRite as whole tomatoes.

Kwithu Kitchens tomatoes on the shelf at the ShopRite.

Stirring the Nsima to feed the children and staff.

Kwithu feeds the neighborhood children a balanced, nutritious meal (with protein) a few times per week. Many of these children are single or double orphans (lost one or both parents).

The char on the left shows the many educational scholorships that Kwithu provides to area children. Many of the children at Kwithu are without one or both parents (some without aunts/uncles to help raise them) as the chart on the right shows.

Happy kiddos singing at Kwithu.

Mzuzu Academy

A student at Mzuzu Academy. Currently, about 25% of the students are on scholarships (funded by donations, Kwithu Kitchens, and the 75% of the students that are full-tuition).

The library at Mzuzu Academy holds the country's largest collections of books by African authors.

A fantastic playground at the academy.

Practicing for Malawi day.

Kafwekula Village

The view from the village.

We were the first non-government visitors the village had received, so our hosts were as excited to meet us, as we were them.

Music, singing and dance is common in the villages for celebrations, and after a long work day/week.

Handmade rope/twine.

These men are making gardening tools. All of the tools that I saw on the trip were handmade (as well as the baskets, brooms, etc...).

Kirsten helping make maize flour for the Nsima.

A ceramic jug is used to keep water cool (refrigerated).

Maize is crushed, sifted, and crushed again until it resembles a fine powder (see next photo).

The maize flour is integrated into boiling water, cooked, stirred, cooked, etc... until the Nsima is ready to eat. It is hard work, and the smoke from the fire can be overwhelming, so there is a lot of taking turns.

"Ground Nuts" (peanuts) were ground into flour and cooked with pumpkin leaves, tomatoes and salt to make one of the staple dishes.

Peanut flour is sifted so the larger chunks can be ground finer.

Kirsten giving peanut flour sifting her best shot.

A traditional Malawian meal, eaten by hand out of shared plates. It was delicious, and the chicken in the upper right was walking around when we arrived. The lower right is Mkhwani, the dish cooked with pumpkin leaves, peanut flour and tomatoes.

This man was making bamboo mats, which are used as beds.

A homemade instrument.

The "long drop" toilet of the village. You have to have good aim.

One of five trips from the well, which is located at the bottom of the hill.

Mud is smeared on the front step of the homes weekly to fill the cracks. Have children? They women work with the children in-tow.

The well is located at the bottom of a steep hill.

The women of the village wanted Kirsten to try carrying water up the hill. Balancing the water is as much of a challenge as the weight, and many of the women do this without hands, and with children on their backs.

Rear-view mirror.

Amused children chewing on sugar cane.

Watching the show (music, dance, skits, speeches).

The young adults of the village put on a few skits for us. Although the plays were in chichewa (or a dialect of), we had a translator.

Another skit. This time about an ill woman receiving help from the community.

The Chief of all of the villages, receiving a gift from me and Kirsten (indestructible soccer balls).

Kirsten, speaking to the villages, thanking them for their hospitality, and commenting on how we are more alike than different.

The nearby school. Kids walk up to 10k to class.

As children have to walk up to 10k to go to school, attendance is greatly dependent on the weather. If it is raining, the river crossings can be impossible, which means kids cannot make it to the school, or make it back home.

Dedza

The preferred method of hauling heavy items in Malawi is balanced on the head (at least by the women). More often than not, items are balanced without the use of hands.

A beautiful village we walked past.

Sunset at the Dedza Pottery and Lodge

Zomba

Children on their day off from school, collect firewood from the plateau for cooking.

The mountains in the distance are in neighboring Mozambique

The bottom of this fern frond are is covered with sporangia, which contain the spores for reproduction (Kirsten, please correct my botany knowledge if I am wrong).

Our view from the top of the Zomba Plateau was obscured by fog. It was still amazing.

The grasslands at the top of the plateau was recently lit on fire by hunters, to flush out the hares.

Another traffic jam on the way to the Zomba Forest Lodge.

The Zomba Forest Lodge is positioned most of the way up the plateau, with incredible views. With no electricity, the lodge is lit at night mostly by oil lanterns and candles, and solar lights in the bedrooms.

Lit by candlelight.

A baboon sits on top of a hotel at the start of our plateau hike.

Liwonde National Park

Liwonde National Park is the home of over 700 elephants. While we were there, they were catching and transporting over 150 of them to repopulate the Nkhotakota National Park. If not relocated, they would start migrating out of the park, and likely killed by villagers (elephants are really distructive to their crops) and poachers.

This Vervet monkey stole muffins off of the tables at Mvuu Camp, no matter how hard you tried to scare him away.

Impala

A sausage tree.

Baby baboons are the cutest baboons.

Lilac-breasted Roller

Waterbuck

Fish Eagle

Not sure what kind of bird this is. Let's call it a Red Capped Boatrider

Giant Kingfisher

Our chalet at Mvuu Camp. We could watch the hippos eating grass in our front yard around midnight.

Hippos sound like giants laughing in slow motion after hearing a very bad "dad joke."

Kirsten and an elephant.

Water Monitor

Buffalo

Termite mounds at sunset.

Striped horses. Just kidding.

The view from our Chalet. Hippos!

Kirsten and a monkey.

Warthog

Domwe Island, Cape Maclear

It was a one hour kayak to reach Domwe Island from Cape Maclear. The island only has one place to stay. There are three "glamping" tents on elevated platforms overlooking the lake. This is the dining area.

Dugout canoes are very common on the lake.

One of the millions of Bawo boards in Malawi.

Our tent.

The hammock and view from our tent.

I haven't the foggiest idea what this animal is.

Miscellany

Grilled mice. A fairly common sight in rural areas in Malawi. Caught in the field, grilled with the hair on, and eaten whole.

We were fortunate enough to have the chance to visit the family of our Denver friends, who are from Mzuzu.

A street musician on a homemade guitar (made from what looks like an old oil can).

Stopping on rural roads often drew crows of children, checking out the "Mzungu" (this literally translates to "travler" but is the mostly endearing term for "white people"). Stopping on the side of the road, you would usually hear a child yell it, and tons of others coming to say hello. Malawians are the friendliest people I have ever met.

Tall grass is used to weave baskets, make brooms, and many other things.

One of my favorite experiences was stopping at a village along the M5 coastal road, and giving children an indestructible soccer ball (one of 19 we brought to Malawi). Beforehand, they were playing with a ball of plastic bags wrapped in twine. This one should easily last 5-10 years. Check out One World Futbols if you are interested. They have a great buy-one-give-one program.